‘Would be very good’… International manager wants £1.3m Leeds United player to come and visit his squad

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Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill wants Leeds United man Stuart Dallas to come and visit his squad over the upcoming international break.

O’Neill was speaking to the Belfast Telegraph ahead of Northern Ireland’s matches with Glen Kamara’s Finland and Denmark over the next two week, as they round off their EUROs qualifying campaign.

Dallas been taking part in some team training at Leeds over the past few weeks as he closes in on a return to action after over 18 months on the sidelines.

The 32-year-old suffered a fractured femur in a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City back in April 2022, and the process of his recovery has been a long one due to the severity of the injury.

As such, Dallas has not been involved for his country since a win in Luxembourg back in March, but O’Neill is keen to change that over the next international break.

O’Neill wants Leeds’ Dallas to visit Northern Ireland camp

O’Neill is keen for Dallas to come and visit his squad for a couple of days over the break as he believes a ‘change of scenery’ would be good for both him, and his players.

He said: “To be fair I think Stuart has had some progress in terms of where he is at. He has been training back with Leeds but has had to step back a couple of times from that.

“I had a conversation with him about possibly coming in to join up with the squad for a day or two next week. That is something that maybe the medical team with ourselves and the medical team at Leeds will discuss.

“Obviously their main priority is to ensure that the care is there for him as well. It would be nice just to see him around again. Steven the same, he plans I think to possibly come over for the Denmark game.

“I think it would give everyone a lift just to see the two lads back. We have talked about Stuart’s injury many times and how complex it is. So I think the players themselves would get a benefit out of it, you know, a change of scenery and a change of the group of players.

“How much benefit there would be for them in terms of their recovery is debatable, but certainly from having them around, and for the mental side of it for the players, I think it would be very good.”

Obviously if he was to take part in any training, Leeds would have to put a plan in place to ensure he is managed carefully, but this doesn’t seem a bad idea.

The £1.3 million signing from Brentford had been a huge part of Northern Ireland’s squad for several years, and so he was just as much a loss to them, as he was to Leeds.

Daniel Farke will likely hand his players some time off during the first week of the break and so it would make sense for Dallas to take O’Neill up on his request.